The present invention generally regards interfacing a driver information system using a voice portal server. More particularly, the present invention regards a method and system for using a voice channel and a data channel linking an onboard device to an offboard voice portal server for the purpose of obtaining navigation information and other information.
There is an increasing effort to make Internet access available for a mobile user. There are also concerns about distracting a driver with information overload. Although there are many safety guidelines for driving, one minimal requirement is xe2x80x9chands on the wheel, eyes on the road.xe2x80x9d This rule suggests the use of speech to interact with information systems. Many developers have pursued voice-enabled systems, however there have been no break-throughs and costs remain high and in many cases quality remains low due to poor recognition rates and/or small vocabularies. Poor recognition rates are due in part to the enormous vocabularies which need to be recognized. For example, a navigation system must be able to recognize any given address as input, which can lead to several tens of thousands of words. The handling of this large database requires large computational power in each mobile unit which leads to significantly higher costs. Besides the high costs, the information accessible through those kinds of stand-alone systems is only as accurate as the information actually stored within the unit. The mobile unit may not be able to be updated frequently with changes like traffic situations, constructions sites, restaurants opening/closing, etc. Therefore, stand-alone systems necessarily suffer some degree of inaccuracy.
Several voice-based services on the market offer Internet-based content over the phone, for example BeVocal.com and TellMe.com. These Voice Portal services are completely automated. The user is guided to the information by following a voice dialogue, i.e. the Voice Portal offers choices the user can access using keywords. Accessing a Voice Portal requires only a phone. All the processing, such as speech recognition, content processing, and text-to-speech conversion will be done on a dedicated server at a service center. This server will not only supply the voice interface but also serves as a gateway to the Internet with its concurrent, up-to-date information. In addition, it is easy to switch to the language in which the user is most comfortable. Even within an ongoing dialogue, it is possible to switch languages due to the potential power of the Voice Portal server and the potential extent of the Voice Portal database.
However, using a Voice Portal server from a mobile unit may still be limited by the use of a single voice channel to communicate both voice and data. What is needed is a method for efficiently providing a high quality voice recognition system for a user, exporting data from onboard systems, transferring data to onboard systems, and communicating audible information to the user, all within a user interface that quickly and seamlessly responds to the user""s queries and responses.
A system and method for combining an onboard mobile unit with a powerful off-board voice portal server is provided. This invention describes a way to advantageously combine the onboard mobile unit with a powerful off-board voice portal server and a way to advantageously combine a voice dialogue with data transfer. A system for interfacing an onboard device situated in a vehicle and a voice portal server includes a voice communicator and a data communicator situated in the vehicle. The onboard device communicates electronically with the voice communicator and/or the data communicator, each of which in turn communicates wirelessly with a base station. The base station communicates electronically with the voice portal server.
A method is provided for providing information to an occupant of a vehicle using a voice communicator, a data communicator, an onboard device, a base station, and a voice portal server. The voice portal server communicates electronically with the base data communicator, and the onboard device communicates electronically with the voice communicator and/or the data commnunicator. The occupant requests information via the voice communicator and via the base station from the voice portal server. The voice portal server communicates an information match via the base station and via the data communicator and/or the voice communicator.
A vehicle navigation apparatus includes a voice communicator, a data communicator, and an onboard device which are all situated in a vehicle. The onboard device is electrically coupled to the voice communicator and the data communicator and communicates wirelessly with a base station. The base station electronically communicates with a voice portal server. The apparatus provides navigation information and other information to the occupant of the vehicle.